The present invention relates generally to animal husbandry techniques and more especially to such techniques for farrowing pigs from the time of their birth until weaning is completed. In particular a farrowing crate where a litter of young pigs may nurse to a preferred single side only of a mother sow and fabricated substantially from flat sheet metal is employed in practicing the present inventive techniques.
Swine management is a relatively sophisticated art which typically includes among other items the use of so-called farrowing crates or stalls which are formed as a cage-like structure of steel tubing having a center sow confining pen and a generally rectangular creep area where young pigs can escape being smothered or injured by the mother sow and with relatively short nursing access regions, one on either side of the sow pen so that the mother sow may lie on either side while nursing a litter. Young pigs try to return to the same nipple at each feeding and due to the mother sow lying on one side and then the other such young pigs sometimes become disoriented as to precisely where they should be at feeding time. This same shifting from one side to the other on the part of the mother sow at the time of birth not only creates a measure of disorientation for the newborn pig but also may create placenta or unbilical cord entanglement problems and potential for infant mortality.
Another only recently recognized problem is that the hollow steel tubing from which such farrowing crates are fabricated are damaged and ultimately ruined by rust, frequently from the inside of the tube outwardly much the same as an automobile body rusts through due to exposure to moisture and salt of the undersurfaces of that automobile body. At least two manufacturers have recently introduced farrowing crates employing solid rods rather than hollow tubing in an attempt to alleviate this problem.
The floor space consumed in a pork producing operation translates into a nearly fixed expense in the form of initial cost, maintenance, lighting, heating, ventilating and the like, substantially independent of the number of litters being weaned in a given facility. It would be highly desirable to reduce the floor space required for each litter thus increasing the number of litters being weaned in a given facility.
Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted the reduction in floor space required for weaning a litter of pigs; the provision of a farrowing crate fabricated substantially from a flat sheet metal with the dual corrosion protection of galvanizing and baked on epoxy coatings; the provision of a process of farrowing pigs wherein a mother sow is encouraged to lie generally on her same one side when nursing; the provision of a farrowing crate design wherein one sidewall thereof functions simultaneously as one wall of a sow pen in each of two adjacent farrowing crates; and the provision of a farrowing crate of reduced initial cost, reduced floor space and of a design yielding an enhanced litter survival rate.
In general, a farrowing crate of primarily flat sheet metal construction has a generally rectangular floor area with a vertical sheet metal barrier extending longitudinally to separate that floor area into two smaller rectangular areas, one for a sow pen and the other as a creep region where young pigs are protected from smothering or other injury by a mother sow.
Also in general and in one form of the invention, a swine management practice includes the confining of a mother sow in a pen having an entry way at one end, and water and feed sources at the other along with the provision of a creep area for a litter of young pigs along one side only of the pen whereby the mother sow is encouraged to lie generally on the same side when nursing the litter. The sow may, however, comfortably lay on either side at her discretion.
Further in general and in one form of the invention, a farrowing crate has a pair of opposed upstanding sidewalls and a pair of opposed upstanding end walls defining a sow pen. A vertically slidable two sided molded sow access door may form substantially the entirety of one end wall with that access door being formed in one piece having an integral inwardly extending protrusion which, when the door is in its lowered position ensures a clearance space therebeneath for young pigs between a sow within the sow pen and the door. One of the sidewalls extends substantially to the bottom of the crate while the other terminates with a lower horizontal edge elevated above the bottom of the crate creating a nursing gap allowing young pigs access to a mother sow from a region adjacent the other sidewall.